Tue 9 Feb 2010
Greg Crowther '95 at mile 40 of 100
Congratulations to Greg Crowther ’95, who won the Rocky Raccoon 100-mile trail race! He ran just under 15 hours for the distance, his first ever 100-mile race. An excerpt from Greg’s race writeup:
You could say that my day at the Rocky Raccoon 100 was foreshadowed by the movie I watched on Friday with my aunt and uncle: Avatar. It was really long, had lots of running through the woods, was about a guy whose legs ceased to function and who wished for a new body, and included much pain and suffering followed by a happy ending.
The story of my race could also be told in part by the split times of my 20-mile laps: 2:38, 2:42, 2:50, 3:04 … and 3:45. Most of the last lap was in the dark, but at the rate I was moving then, darkness was hardly an impediment.
[...]
Before long we were sailing along the final straightaway, a couple hundred meters long. “Number 169 is finishing!” I yelled to the race officials. As Paul and I finished in 14:58, I raised his hand in triumph, for the victory belonged to him too — as it did to John and to my uncle Chris, who crewed for me thoughout the day, and to Paul’s wife Meredith, who assisted Chris after placing 2nd in the 50-mile race.
Race director Joe Prusaitis emerged from the darkness. “You ran a great race!” he enthused. “No, YOU ran a great race!” I said, poking him in the chest with my index finger. “That was REALLY well organized!”
Fast, and humble, too! What a marvelous Eph. (Click the link above for a picture of his very unique rusty metal trophy — and for a recap of everything that happened in the middle of the race.)
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9 Responses to “Eph victorious at 100-mile trail race”
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jeffz says:
Masochism has a name, and it is Greg Crowther.
I feel good that I can run three miles at about the same pace as an elite athlete like Crowther. I will choose to ignore the fact that he ran 97 miles immediately prior to that point … Sweet Jesus.
Ronit says:
Could someone explain what this means:
@jeffz: I, too, can do a mile in 14:58!
jeffz says:
Clicking through to the article, he ran (I believe) the last three miles in 26 minutes … absolutely insane after 97 previous miles!
'10 says:
@Ronit: I believe those would be his 20 mile splits, in h:mm — meaning it took him 2 hrs 38 min to run miles 1-20, 2:42 to run miles 21-40, etc.
So, his pace for the sets:
Miles 1-20: 7:52min/min
Miles 21-40: 8:06
Miles 41-60: 8:30
Miles 61-80: 9:12
Miles 81-100: 11:15
Or, more succinctly, pretty damn impressive over fifteen hours of straight running at altitude and in hills!
Ronit says:
So 14:58 was the number of hours for 100 miles? Damn.
Jr. Mom says:
Wow. What an amazing accomplishment.
What does that do to your feet?
Diana says:
Here is an article about ultrarunners’ feet and their strategy of simply removing toenails (with pictures).
jeffz says:
I don’t have many rules for my life. But one of them is this: any sport that requires, as a matter of course, removal of one or more of my naturally-occurring body parts, I tend to avoid. I am just not that much of a bad-ass.
Jr. Mom says:
@Diana:
Oh, oh, dear…TMI… yech…aaargh…ooomph….